Axxuy tagged me for this. It’s my first time doing one of these. It’s like chain mail but with posts. You can go to the link above to follow it back to previous posts.
Why did you start blogging in the first place?
When I was in college, fifteen years ago, I started a “blog” on Tumblr. I don’t know what Tumblr is like now, but back then it was simple and looked a lot like a minimal blog would. My first post was a review of a music venue that tried to cheat my buddy out of his cut. I only posted a couple more times after that. I’m not really sure what possessed me to make the attempt at starting a blog back then.
The next time I blogged was this year—July 30, 2025—two days before Blaugust. Having been off social media for over half a year, I was looking for a way to connect with the internet that didn’t involve big tech algorithms that exploit their users. I found Manuel Moreale by chance while searching on Wiby—a search engine designed for the independent web. You can search your site and if you can’t find it, submit your page like I did.
Manuel has a beautifully simplistic site that made me immediately start building a website of my own. I already had a domain and hosting from an old project, so I just needed to build the site.
What platform are you using to manage your blog, and why did you choose it? Have you blogged on other platforms before?
I hand built everything on my blog with loads of help from ChatGPT. HTML and CSS have been things I’ve spent some time learning in the past to build little self-hosted websites. If not for Myspace, I may not have ever gotten into it. ChatGPT helps with anything I can’t figure out and troubleshooting. At this point, it’s basically finished, but I’m sure it will constantly be changing—if for no other reason than my love of tinkering.
I tried to blog on WordPress.org (not .com), but it was too difficult to get the themes to do exactly what I wanted. WordPress is great for the website I run for a non-profit organization I’m a member of, but when it comes to doing things for me, I have to understand what’s making the website work. I would have built their site by hand too, but I was worried I would leave one day, and they would be lost.
How do you write your posts? For example, in a local editing tool, or in a panel/dashboard that’s part of your blog?
I almost always write in my journal or a loose piece of notebook paper as my first draft. When I start to edit, I open up WinSCP which lets me access my website files via FTP server, so it’s like the files are on my computer, but they’re not. Then I start a new HTML file. I have WinSCP set up to open my files in Visual Studio Code which spots errors in my code and has a spell-checker plugin.
When do you feel most inspired to write?
I regularly write stream of consciousness in my journal. When a cool idea pops up, I put it on my list of posts to write. By the time it makes it to the list, discipline usually becomes the driver for writing the post.
Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?
I do publish immediately. If I didn’t, I would start to worry that the post isn’t good enough, and it would never see the light of day. The only time this isn’t true is if I get busy and have no choice but to wait.
What’s your favourite post on your blog?
Out of all the posts I’ve written so far, You Might Call Me an Atheist is my favorite. It’s probably a controversial post to a lot of people, but it’s one of the few posts on here that tells visitors something that affected my life deeply. I’d like to hope that someone in the world who could relate might find posts like that earlier in their journey and take some value from it. Even when my identity is not tied to my blog, it can be scary to put posts of that nature up. It’s not the kind of thing I can start talking about with people in real life until I’m sure I can trust them.
Who’s next?
Next up is Kluwes, Heyraeh, and Reay. Looking forward to seeing your posts.